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Your thread was locked before I got a chance to weigh in. Will, I remember your very first public posts way back in 2000 before you even joined DU. I remember when you first came to DU and everyone was so excited to see you. I had read one of your editorials on BUSHWATCH and found a link to DU on Jan 20, 2001 the day Skinner, Elad and EarlG started the site. I lurked that whole year too paranoid to join the conversation. It took 9/11 to make me muster up the courage to speak out. I came to DU because I felt the need to find someone anywhere in the US who saw what was happening as I did.
We all suffered from the curse of Cassandra back then. We had figured out partially through good critical thinking skills, but mostly through intuitive skills what was happening to our country, but we couldn't get most other Americans to believe us. I had this prophetic horrible dream of a missile falling from the sky as I sat on my backsteps right before the election. It was so real and frightening. I swear the missile had Bush's name on it. That and seeing the glint in Bush's eye when he talked about the death penalty convinced me that he was a madman. Those premonitions were the strongest I have ever had in my life. I knew but could not explain what was about to happen to our country. And it sounded irrational and tinfoilie to even mention to people my strong reaction. It was a psychic flash. No point trying to explain.
Your voice was a life preserver as I found myself flailing in the vast sea of misery we all were floundering in after Nov. 2000. This is not cult/pedestal worship/idolatry fucking crap that some assholes on DU like to throw out at you and those of us who defend you. Fuck them. They weren't there. I was alone (or very nearly).
The fact that you were from Boston also made me take notice as all my family comes from that area (except me in the Northwest). The last I heard my son lives in Boston. He had joined the military against my wishes before Bush came into office. He has not spoken to me since we had a terrible falling out over his decisions. I have no idea what ever happened to him. And it broke my heart. Your own mom once offered me words of comfort, and I will never forget that act of compassion on her part. This is a very traumatic and difficult part of my life. Even today, I can hardly talk about it. I haven't even been able to visit my family in Boston because the pain is too hard to deal with. I know if I visited, I'd be scouring the gutters looking for a person I can never find.
You once hugged one of my half sisters at a protest in Boston. And you hugged me at Andy's funeral. You connected us in ways I have not had the courage to do in person. A six degrees of separation thing. Dammit, now I am crying. And Andy's mother told me at his service how grateful she was that Andy's friends had done such a wonderful thing for him. She particularly shared with me the fact that she drew comfort from your words. No one who wasn't there has a right to tell you any different.
I am appalled at the treatment of you by DUers I once respected. I can't believe how vicious they were. I am ashamed not to have jumped in and kicked their butts. I just didn't want to set them off worse by responding. Fuck them. I would rather put them on ignore.
Like you said, we know who the good DUers have been: Crew, Keph, Andy, Nostamj, and so many others who have drifted off or been driven off. I don't want you to be driven off, Will. Your absence would leave DU a very empty place.
Well, I see I have written almost as much as you did. Just know the ones who have worked so hard to wound you are not worth shit. You are better on your worst days than a dozen of them will ever be.
Linda Ford
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